UK minister lowers expectations for growth plan

Reuters: Britain will not be unveiling instant fixes to boost its anaemic economy when it publishes a growth review later this month, a senior government minister said in remarks published on Saturday.

“What I hope people are not expecting is that any politician can, to use the old cliche, kick-start the economy by announcing two or three measures that get our economy surging again by Christmas. It isn’t like that,” Justice Minister Ken Clarke said.

“You are trying to get growth higher than it would otherwise have been in the middle of the most difficult financial crisis anyone has faced in our lifetimes,” Clarke, a former finance minister, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Fears are rising that Britain could tip back into recession as the euro zone debt crisis clouds prospects for an economy that has barely expanded over the past 12 months, with unemployment hitting a 17-year high.

Finance minister George Osborne is under intense pressure to find ways of spurring growth while sticking to plans to cut a swollen budget deficit when he makes a statement on his economic programme on Nov. 29.

Osborne has insisted he will not deviate from his austerity measures, saying to do so would be to risk the country’s hard-won credibility with the markets.

Sources at his Treasury department have played down hopes Osborne will announce any grand schemes to revive the economy.

He is expected to announce plans to encourage greater private sector investment in areas such as infrastructure, construction and the housing market as ways of lifting growth without increasing state spending.

“I have seen lots and lots of plans for growth, most of which were useless. What George is doing is trying to put a hard hat on and look for things that will actually work,” Clarke said.